REPORT 



ON THE 


ANDY 






I 

AND BEAVER CANAL. 


WITH A JlAP OF THE ROUTE. 


By E. H. GILL, Engineer. 
















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REPORT 


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I 


ON THE 


SANDY AND BEAVER CANAL. 


WITH A MAP OF THE ROUTE. 


By E. H. GILL, Engineer. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

PRINTED BY JOSEPH AND WILLIAM KITE. 


1835. 









/9F03 Goodu%^e^ci 


REPORT. 


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TO THE PRESIDENT AND DIRECTORS OF 

THE SANDY AND BEAVER CANAL CO. 


Gentlemen : 

In compliance with your request I have the honour to lay 
before you the following Report of the present state of the 
work under my direction:— 

During the past summer the whole line has been minutely 
traced, with a view to a permanent location: by this survey 
the total extent of canal has been reduced 3 miles, or the dis¬ 
tance from the Ohio river at the mouth of Little Beaver creek 
to the western termination at the Ohio canal, by the recent 
examination and location will not exceed 73| miles. 

The Eastern division of the canal, extending from the Ohio 
river to a point 2 miles west of New Lisbon, embraces a dis¬ 
tance of about 27 miles, of which 17 miles are “ slackwater 
for this description of improvement the stream is exceedingly 
well adapted, the valley being narrow and the banks bold and 
prominent, affording numerous arid eligible sites for the locks 
and dams, and an abundance of good materials for their form¬ 
ation. 

The summit or Middle division is about 14^ miles in extent, 
and the Western division, terminating at the Ohio canal, about 
32 miles. The latter division extends through a country afford¬ 
ing the greatest facilities for constructing a cheap and perma¬ 
nent improvement; the valley of the creek is broad and has 
nearly a uniform declivity from its source to its confluence 
with the Tuscarawas. On the Eastern division the lockage 
is 464 feet, and on the Western 205, constituting in all 669 
feet. In locating the Western division the level has been kept 
up from Williams’ mill dam to the debouch into the Ohio canal 
at the flourishing town of Bolivar, by which arrangement an 


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excellent water power is secured to the Company, affording a 
head and fall of 26 feet: the owners of the property at the site * 
selected for using the water have liberally ceded to the Com¬ 
pany 10 acres of very valuable land for that purpose. Sandy 
Creek at that point will yield a sufficiency of water, indepen¬ 
dent of the requisite supply for the canal, at all times to work 
20, and for eight months in the year 50 pair of mill stones. 

This power^may reasonably be estimated as worth $6000 per 
annum. Many other valuable sites for hydraulic purposes 
have been created or purchased along the route, which, in con¬ 
junction with the one above mentioned, will probably afford 
the Company a revenue of $7000 per year. 

On the Eastern division of the line, 49 sections, or 24| miles 
of canal, 13 dams, and 46 locks, are now under contract: on 
the Middle division, 21 sections or 11 miles, including the tun¬ 
nels and the reservoir mounds on the west fork of Little Beaver 
Creek and Cold Run: and on the Western division 28 sections 
or 14 miles, 11 locks, 1 dam, and the aqueduct over the Tus¬ 
carawas river, constituting in all 49^ miles of canal, 14 dams, 

57 locks, one aqueduct, and two reservoir mounds now under 
contract. 

The work has been prosecuted in most cases with energy, 
and is now in a greater state of forwardness than could reason¬ 
ably have been anticipated, considering that the season was 
far advanced when it was commenced. About 34 sections or 
17 miles of canal are now completed, and likewise the mason 
work of two locks, and 144,000 cubic yards of excavation 
removed from the summit deep cuts: dam No. 2, on the West¬ 
ern division, will probably be completed next week. 

The foundation of 5 other locks and 2 dams are laid, and 
1500 perches of wall built; and a large quantity of stones and 
other materials for the construction of locks and dams are pre¬ 
pared and on the ground; and I have no doubt all the work 
now under contract, excepting the tunnels and aqueduct, will 
be finished in the approaching year. 

The work placed under contract is in most instances in the 
hands of responsible and efficient men, and has been taken on 
terms exceedingly favourable to the Company. There is at 
the present period on the line a force equivalent to 2160 men. 

The cost of the locks, which are built in the most durable man¬ 
ner of cut sandstone, will not exceed $700 per foot lift, being 
about thirty per cent, below the ordinary cost elsewhere. The 
cost of the dams, which are in most instances 14 feet high, 
will average about $28 per foot linear across the stream ; and 


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the canal, exclusive of locks and dams, generally from $3000 
to $5000 per mile. 

' A contract has been entered into for furnishing the remain¬ 
der <3f the hydraulic cement; it is found in abundance contigu¬ 
ous to the line; the quality is equal to any I have seen, and 
the cost extremely moderate. 

The contract for excavating the tunnel and approaches, has 
been taken by energetic and persevering contractors on rea¬ 
sonable terms, the former not exceeding the estimated cost: 
this work is to be completed by May 1837. As much has 
been stated in relation to the adequacy of the supply of water 
on the summit, it may be proper to remark, that during the 
past season I commenced and have continued a series of minute 
examinations of the most prominent streams relied on for a 
supply: those examinations have thus far fully corroborated 
the truth of the statements and calculations embraced in the 
report made you last autumn by Mr. Hage and myself. I feel 
fully satisfied, that with the aid of the reservoirs that can be 
constructed on the summit, at a moderate cost compared with 
their utility, a much larger quantity of water may be intro¬ 
duced into the summit and its dependent levels, than will be 
requisite for the transit of the immense trade that is destined 
to seek a market through its channel. The reservoirs now 
under contract will contain as follows: West Fork reservoir, 
130,000,000 of cubic feet; area, 350 acres: Cold Run reser¬ 
voir, 88,000,000 of cubic feet; area, 250 acres: in addition to 
which it is proposed to elevate the banks of the canal so as to 
retain one foot in depth of available water, and flood several 
pieces of low ground on its northern or upper side, amounting 
in all to about 150 acres, which, when full, will furnish about 
6,500,000 of cubic feet, making in the aggregate from these 
sources alone, an available supply of 224,500,000 cubic feet of 
water, a demand op which may be requisite in a dry season 
for a period of 100 days. By calculation it will be perceived, 
these reservoirs will afford for that period 2,245,000 cubic feet 
of water per day, equivalent to a discharge of 1559 cubic feet 
per minute. If to this sum is added the minimum natural flow 
of water on the summit as reported to you last autumn, (558 
cubic feet per minute) it will be observed that the flow of avail¬ 
able water in a dry period will amount to 2117 cubic feet per 
minute, or sufficient, after deducting airthat the nature of the 
soil and climate will require for leakage, filtration and evapo¬ 
ration, for the passage of 185 boats per day . The West Fork 
and Cold Run reservoirs are about one mile apart: when filled, 


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the surface of the water in each will occupy the same plane, 
or be elevated to the same height: it is designed to have a 
feeder extending from one to the other, so that the surplus 
water in one can be admitted into the other, if required. A 
large waste weir is to be constructed on this feeder for the 
purpose of discharging the waste water when both reservoirs 
are full. This water, when thus discharged, is conducted into 
the reservoir on the summit level. The two first mentioned 
reservoirs will receive the drainage of 24 square miles of coun¬ 
try ; the summit, the drainage of 80 square miles. The usual 
depth of rain that falls in this section of country can, I am 
informed, with safety be premised at 36 inches per annum, or 
equal to a column of that height, being 83,635,000 cubic feet 
on a square mile, and on 24 square miles 2,107,244,800 cubic 
feet annually. From experiments made on a large scale else¬ 
where for practical purposes it has been ascertained conclu¬ 
sively, that 75 per cent, of the rain that falls can be laid up in 
reservoirs. From this data it will be observed, that the three 
reservoirs above alluded to may be filled seven times per year. 
This exhibit will probably satisfy the most sceptical as to the 
adequacy of the supply of water. As to the immensity of the 
trade that will wend its way through the Sandy and Beaver 
canal to an Eastern market, I believe there has never been 
surmised a doubt: a glance at the map will prove conclusively 
that a very large portion of the produce of Michigan, Illinois, 
Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, which are rapidly increasing in 
population and wealth, must be wafted through it. The busi¬ 
ness of that section of country is now T to a great extent accom¬ 
modated by the New York improvements, but the completion 
of the Sandy and Beaver canal will secure to it a safer transit 
to and from the seaboard, much shorter, and navigable six 
weeks earlier in the spring and three later in the fall than the 
one now traversed, being sufficient inducements to secure it. 
What the extent of that trade will be time alone can develope. 
On the Erie and Champlain canals, a very large portion of the 
business done on the first of which is derived from the country 
above mentioned, there have been received in tolls in 1829 
$759,055, 1830 $1,032,476, 1831 $1,194,610, 1832 $1,196,008, 
1833 $1,324,421, 1834 $1,292,955, and there is no doubt that 
the business of this year will very greatly exceed the last. On 
the Ohio canal there was collected in 1832 $82,867, 1833 
$136,920, 1834 $151,287, and the amount of tolls received the 
present year at some of the collectors’ offices exhibits an in¬ 
crease of forty-five per cent, over the last. 


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When the canal or rail road authorized by an act of the 
legislature of this State at their last session, to be constructed 
from the western termination of the Sandy and Beaver canal 
to the Miami canal near the mouth of the Auglaise river shall 
have been completed, it must add an immense revenue to your 
work, as it, in connexion with the Wabash and Erie canal 
through Indiana, and the contemplated rail road through Illi¬ 
nois to the Mississippi river will constitute a continuous chain 
of internal improvement, extending westerly from the Sandy 
and Beaver canal 500 miles, and from Philadelphia 1000, into 
the rich and fertile regions of the west. 

The following synopsis of the distance the trade of the coun¬ 
try situated west and south-west of the Sandy and Beaver 
canal would have to travel from the western termination of 
that work, in order to reach a market by the various routes 
now afforded it, or about to be, will fully justify the conclusion 
that it must seek a passage through it. 


Distance by the Ohio Canal., Lake Erie, New York Canal and 
Hudson River to New York. 

From the Sandy and Beaver canal to Cleveland 80 miles. 

From Cleveland to Buffalo - 200 “ 

From Buffalo to New York - - - - 515 “ 

Total 795 « 


Distance by the Ohio and Mahoning Canals and Pennsylvania 
Canal and Rail Road to Philadelphia. 


From Bolivar to Akron 
From Akron to Beavertovvn 
From Beavertown to Pittsburg 
From Pittsburg to Philadelphia 


42 miles. 
114 “ 

28 “ 
394 “ 


Total - 578 miles. 


Distance by the Sandy and Beaver Canal and Pennsylvania 
improvements to Philadelphia. 


From Bolivar to Beavertown - 
From Beavertown to Pittsburg 
From Pittsburg to Philadelphia 


S7i miles. 
28 
394 


Total 


509| miles. 




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From the rapid increase in business on the New York and 
Ohio canals it is to be presumed that when the Sandy and 
Beaver canal shall have been finished, the tolls on the Ohio 
canal will at least amount to $400,000 per annum; and from 
the foregoing facts and statements it is to be inferred, that two- 
thirds of that trade will pass through the Sandy and Beaver 
canal, which would neat the holders of stock in that work, at 
the rate charged on the Ohio canal, an income of at least 
$60,000 the first season.* If to this sum is added the amount 
that may be anticipated from the liberal grant contained in 
the amended charter,f which cannot fall short of $150,000, 
the Company will receive, in the first year after the work is 
finished, $210,000 in tolls—independent of the large business 
that may be expected from the country west and north-west 
of the termination of their work—presenting the novel result 
of a canal yielding seventeen per cent, on its entire cost the 
first year after its completion. 

All which is respectfully submitted. 

E. H. GILL, Chief Engineer 
S. and B. Canal Co. 

New Lisbon, Ohio, Nov. 11, 1835. 

* This estimate may seem large, but it must be kept in mind that the Sandy 
and Beaver canal will constitute a connecting link between two large and import¬ 
ant works, (the Ohio canal and Pennsylvania improvements) now completed; 
consequently it has not, like other canals, to await the growth of business. 

t The amended charter secures to the Sandy and Beaver Canal Co. all the tolls 
collected on the Ohio canal from boats that have passed through the Sandy and 
Beaver canal for seven years after its completion. 


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